Just Neighbourhoods – first advisory group meeting

Just Neighbourhoods – first advisory group meeting

By Tessa Lynn Comment Closed

In February 2024 we held our first project advisory group meeting, it was a great opportunity for everyone to introduce themselves and for us to provide an introduction to the project, including the aims, objectives and research design. 

We are delighted to have such an experienced advisory group contributing to the project.  

More detail is on the project website under ‘Advisory group’ and we captured everyone’ happy smiley faces in the picture (consents duly sought and secured!) 

We shared information about the four work packages that will be completed by April 2026: 

 - WP1 a,b,c  (framing and scoping)​ and see our working papers here 

 - WP2 a,b,c,d  (primary data collection and discussion)​ 

 - WP3 workshops and synthesis​ 

 - WP4 write-up stage plus a symposium and other dissemination activity 

In the meeting we discussed the communications plan and six key audiences (and how we will reach out): 

  1. Participant neighbourhoods​ 
  1. Policy makers​ 
  1. Professional planners​ 
  1. Voluntary community sector (intermediaries)​ 
  1. Research and academic communities​ 
  1. Underrepresented neighbourhoods across UK and NI 

There will be a variety of activities and outputs towards the end of the project, highlights are workshops (WP3)​, symposium (WP3)​, a ‘living power’ toolkit​ and published work including papers, book and blogs. Meantime we are producing working papers – the first two are already out here. 

Team meeting: What Plans to look at?

Team meeting: What Plans to look at?

By Tessa Lynn Comment Closed
Euston Tube Station Map
Euston Tube Station Map

After completing the WP1a Theoretical Framework and WP1b Literature Review, the team met to discuss and make progress on WP1c – the initial sample and content review. We decided on a change of scenery this time, given we are located in four different places, and so we met at the Friends Meeting House near Euston, which was an ideal spot for us to unpick the complexities involved with the next two stages of the content review, particularly as there are slightly different approaches required for each of the nations.  

We considered the criteria to be used to select which plans we will review, particularly how to select what ‘left behind’ area CLPs in England, and what ‘plans’ we will look at in Scotland, Wales, and NI. Ultimately, we will be able to include around 100 plans​ to review and identify where CLP activity responds to social and environmental justice – a core part of the research. This process will then help us determine which neighbourhoods we will look to work with more closely during 2024-2025. 

It’s not all work though as we then decided to pay a visit to another community asset, the Euston Tap! To conclude our deliberations for the day. 

Dec 2023 Update

Dec 2023 Update

By Tessa Lynn Comment Closed

As of December 2023, the project team met in London for a pre-Christmas update and get-together. We have spent the first few months of the project working on various things, with the literature review the biggest task. A huge quantity of new academic papers is published every year on a wide range of topics, and even focusing on community-led planning as we have been doing reveals new and interesting perspectives. Between us, we are reading around 400 papers, identified through a careful search and sorting process undertaken by Tessa and Matt. This has been a very interesting task, exposing us all to a range of literature that we might otherwise not have been aware of. We are now synthesising the sources we have read under a series of themes, to identify the most important findings for us and to shape the next stages of the project.